TexasGeneral

By the way - Phase II of this project has been postponed indefinitely.  Kiran's was scheduled to move out of their space to allow for the demo of the low slung office buildings abutting Westheimer, but just had their lease extended for 2 years, so they are staying.

Is that from a source or just a hunch?

My source is common sense.  Stock prices across the energy spectrum are getting crushed (with many down 25-30% last Friday alone).  A lot of the growth of the E&P and midstream sectors have been possible by the issuance of high yield debt.  That market is completely dried up - not only is there not any availability for new issuance, but there is limited liquidity for buyers of that debt.  Borrowing base re-determinations are going to happen at year-end and many companies' liquidity is going to be reigned in.  Cash flow is going to nose dive.  The last thing any E&P or midstream company wants to do right now is expand its workforce and acquire more office space. The Houston metro has been flooded with new office space and even more is under construction.

There is virtually no chance of this project going forward unless it is funded by really dumb money.  No way TC puts its own money behind this deal.  

This project is not happening...at least not anytime soon with oil prices in freefall.  

There is a tower crane base on site now.  Don't have a pic.

That pool is the best thing going for this project....

There is a construction fence going up and demolition has begun.  Several bulldozers on site.  Parking lot is all ripped up.

As great as these places are, and as awesome as it is that all this is being built downtown, when I think of how high the rents will be, I would still honestly rather be in a similar high rise in the Galleria.

As many leaps and bounds as we have made downtown, there still isnt enough retail in the immediate area, as opposed to the galleria.

In other words, when all of these rich people want to go shopping on the weekends, they will still have to get in their cars and drive out of downtown to get there, ("there" probably being the galleria area) because there damn sure aint any shopping downtown.

These places are mostly for people who work downtown.  If I work downtown and wanted to live in a high-rise, I would live downtown.  I go shopping about 3 times per year, I go to work 5 days a week.  For people who work in the Galleria, living in the Galleria makes more sense.  It's all about the commute.  

This project is a prime candidate to be scratched.  Too many high-rise MF going up, equity harder to come by, all other high-rise MF projects are over budget, oil prices are in freefall, weakening economic growth, etc. etc. etc.   

likely true although MF equity is drying up pretty quickly, especially for highrises - there's a general consensus that we may be overbuilding that sector and many of the major players are taking a wait and see approach to see how the market absorbs all the current projects u/c.

I think we will start to see more projects get canceled or delayed, especially so given the dramatic decline in oil prices.  Probably a good thing that MF development takes a deep breath.

This site, combined with the vacant building and parking lot at the NW corner of Buffalo Speedway and Richmond, have the potential to be developed into something really great.  He is right when he says this tract is one of the largest and most desirable in-fill locations left in Houston.   

I would imagine their "exploring alternatives for its downtown facility" would involve a sale to an office or MF developer.

That is an amazing looking residential building.  I love the floor to ceiling glass on the end units.  

This has been a staging and parking site for the construction of the new Jonathan's Rub behind the Nexen building.  The Hotel ZaZa project has not begun, although it looks like the building that housed the seafood restaurant and tanning salon is now being demo'ed.  

It's a pretty-good sized chunk of land...  at least 2.25 acres (1 1/2 times the size of a downtown block).  The site currently has two buildings (124,000 square foot office building and a parking garage) and the buildings take up less than 1/2 of the property.  Three buildings will be able to fit on the property pretty easily.

 

How is access going to be an issue?  It has good street frontage on Waugh and on Feagan.

Only one of the buildings proposed is nearly six times as large as the existing building. I guess it depends on the scale and type of hotel + resi components.    

Access is bad - Waugh is only one way at the site and is right before the merge onto Memorial.  Feagan is a narrow, tiny street with drainage issues.   

I don't see how a project of this magnitude can fit on that site.  Access would be a real issue.  

The JLL 2Q report says that this tower has broken ground.  Don't know how accurate this is given the report's blurb on 609 Main is clearly out of date.  

"22 Waugh Drive is a development by Stream Realty and is 

Y'all do no that those pictures used as backdrops are pictures taken from something other than a floor on this building. Right? I wouldn't assume that they will be terribly accurate.

Unless Hines sent a drone up with a panoramic camera and an altimeter to take shots at the exact height of eye as the floors shown in the rendering. Maybe...but I kind of doubt it.

Developers are all using drones now to capture views from specific floors as marketing tools.  

I like the last picture with the market square tower included as well.  Based on these renderings, it looks like this tower will be as tall as One Shell and First City Tower, if not taller.  

That stone obelisk thing is just awful.  Terrible.  Horrible.

I don't have a picture, but a tower crane is now up on what appears to be the site of the 10-story Town Center 1.

could this be for Occidental, or is there space in Greenway 3 & 5 for them to expand?

Occidental Petroleum Company is moving their HQ to Houston!

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/02/14/occidental-petroleum-splintering-and-moving-its.html

Oxy only has 200 employees in LA. The move to Houston will only bring a few dozen jobs. So, it is unlikely any of this tower will be Oxy.

A construction fence is being put up around the property.

The construction site immediately to the south of the WF site is going to be the new home of Jonathan's The Rub restaurant and catering business. There is a sign out front.

Update on this...the entire Bally's complex has been completely demo'ed and there is a sign out front with a picture of two glass towers that says "630,000 square feet Class A office Coming Soon."  I don't have a picture but the towers are all glass and look different (in my opinion, much better) than the other three office buildings across the street.  One looks to be in the 10-15 floor range and the other maybe up to 20 floors. 

I think the most sensible place for a Ritz would be Blvd Place or some other location in Uptown.  Either that, or in the Upper Kirby/Greenway Plaza area.  I could also see a W in those locations as well.